Dream, dream, dream

This year in the United States the president campaigned and his campaign was full of hate and fear one statement that was very troubling for me was one in which he said that “The American Dream is dead”. The phrase American Dream was coined in 1931 by the popular writer and historian James Turslow Adams and it refers to the upward mobility of people in the United States of America.

“that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” — James Turslow Adams

Just recently I listened to a podcast from Freakenomics radio that was all about the American dream. For me the major takeaway from the podcast was, that the American Dream is not dead it is merely elusive and if society works together it can become revived again and available for all.

As I listened to the podcast I thought about dreams. What is a dream, obviously there is the concept of images and stories we are treated to while sleeping and then there is the aspirations, vision, hope an ideal. The Everly Brothers sang the song “All I have to Do is Dream”. In the song the brothers sang about a girl that they were infatuated with and in their dreams she was theirs the only problem was they were dreaming their life away. Martin Luther King Jr. was famous for his I have a dream speech. In his speech Martin Luther dreamed of a nation that was desegregated, were children of all skin colors played together and learned together. It maybe irony that a major way to promote and foster upward mobility in a United States city is through racial and economic desegregation. The more mixed a city is the more well off the children of the city will be. Atlanta GA is highly segregated and the lack of upward mobility in that city is at an all time high.

What is your dream? Is it James Turslows Adams dream, Martin luther King Jrs., The Everly Brothers? What are you doing to accomplish your dream? See the strange thing about all three of these dreams is this; to accomplish these dreams you must think about someone other than yourself and act in the interests of someone other than yourself. A society where upward mobility is evident cannot have segregation and racism run rampant as it is today, a society in which children of all colors are playing and living in peace has no room for racism, and the desires of a would be paramour must be achieved through going out of ones way to make life better for the love interest.

I guess my takeaway from my meandering thoughts this am or my daydreaming is that dreams can become a reality if they are fostered with love for others and dreams will die when we only care for and help ourselves.